That's not a REAL Mini :(

The floor in your garage is awesome, so much more attractive than my oil-stained concrete. Cool.

In reply to NOHOME:

Every car has it's issues. Honestly this car has been more reliable than my miata. But I guess it's also due to preventative maintenance.

minivan_racer wrote: That info sent me down a rabbit hole I didn't need to go down. I don't need to know that the supercharged mini engine would probably fit in a 2nd gen neon, because that would be a pointless swap right?

They used the regular 1.6 in Europe, so the parts are probably NLA somewhere.

In reply to pinchvalve:

That's at work lol. My garage floor is oily concrete.

In reply to red_stapler:

I have a PDF file from MINI explaining the differences between the W10 and W11 engines.

They even had a 1.4 Variant for Portugal and Greece used in the MINI One.

mndsm wrote:

minivan_racer wrote:

N7Prime wrote: Indeed, this is a German designed car with a Chrysler engine and Rover designed supercharger layout. (Take a Guess on which is the least reliable part of the car. :p)

That info sent me down a rabbit hole I didn't need to go down. I don't need to know that the supercharged mini engine would probably fit in a 2nd gen neon, because that would be a pointless swap right?

Wait. So, you're saying an r53 cooper s engine will fit into a 2nd Gen neon? Same neon that became an srt4? That means the swap should work the other way......oh god.

No the 1.6 was used in a neon so brackets exist to bolt that car to the chassis, the 1.6 wasn't used in North America and the engine shares nothing with the 2.0/2.4.

N7Prime wrote: In reply to NOHOME: Every car has it's issues. Honestly this car has been more reliable than my miata. But I guess it's also due to preventative maintenance.

Fair enough, especially when you consider that I scrap cars after they turn ten regardless of who made them. It just seems that what with the Cheap Porsche thread, the Mazdeuce head-bolt and the Boxter intermediate shaft thread, it would seem that anything make by a German is going to bite you on the wallet eventually. The Diesel-gate debacle does nothing for the German Car image either. Personal experience with a Mercedes is that the electrical system is every Lucas joke wrapped in a pretty tin box; they literally could not make (source) a light-bulb that did not burn out.

NOHOME wrote: Personal experience with a Mercedes is that the electrical system is every Lucas joke wrapped in a pretty tin box; they literally could not make (source) a light-bulb that did not burn out.

After nearly 15 years of playing with German cars thanks to my ex-g/f (and then her D-Jet equipped 1800ES), I have a long running joke that Lucas engineers didn't die or retire - they crossed the Channel to work for Bosch.

Love the thread title. I can see this happening in real life. Guy toting his Monster Energy walks out of the gas station and sees your car. Verbal diarrheas "You know, that's not a REAL mini."

I had a 2006 Cooper S with 6-speed and limited slip from new. It was a great car while I had it. In 60k miles, it only had a few typical problems that weren't even very expensive (O2 sensor, leaky sump gasket and thermostat cover). It sounds like you've covered the stuff that goes bad with the supercharger, so you should be relatively good to go. If you're going to autocross much, definitely consider camber plates and watch the rear suspension links. I've seen stock ones bend from the extra g-force load of R-comps.

In reply to Scooter:

Been there. And the ironic thing is that I'm not a fan of the Original Mini. They are just too expensive to find a decent one. I'd rather have a late 80's civic SEDAN with the Mugen catalog thrown at it.

In reply to Scooter:

Will be getting adjustable Camber and toe arms in due time. With full Poly bushings and the aluminum R56 rear control arms. I still can't decide on a sub $1k dollar coilover setup.

In reply to NOHOME:

All cars have flaws, not just German ones. Subaru has the Ringland failures, Some Miatas have the throwout bearing issues or the crank snout issues. All which aren't easy to fix. Or cheap in some instances.

I love the R53, I miss driving it when I don't. Something the Miata couldn't do. The Miata wasn't for me because it was just too slow. Handling? Yes it had it of course, no surprise there but the Roads around my area SUCK, So I couldn't have fun locally. :/.

The W11 engine is a ball of happiness when driving it hard, 05 and 06 cars had different tuning to the ECU so they Pop and Crackle more on decel, it's just full of character. The supercharger whine is amazing.

Speaking of the engine, here are the tech specs and differences from the normal W10 engine.

http://new.minimania.com/The_R53_MINI_Cooper_S_Powertrain_2205

BUT. If somebody asked me if this is a good car for them. My answer is only if you can work on your own car and love to drive. Otherwise you will LOATH it.

Great thread!

Is there any way to know if you are getting one with the LSD other than doing a burnout while leaving the seller's house for a test drive?

In reply to Slippery:

Check the Vin through a Decoder or check the part number of the gearbox. I forgot the numbers off the top of my head.

Update pic under the hood, You can see the shameless rice stickers on the front bumper to alert dudes on what Junk I have cooling my other Junk :p. I will get it cleaned again in the next wash and hopefully add a stainless IC Dirverter from DDM and change out those poopy looking IC Screws. I have some other gaskets and O-rings in the mail, and brakes for the.....other car.

My evaporator is leaking so I have to figure out on how to change that, expecting the worst since it's pretty much a BMW. At least the part's cheap, unlike the heater core for a Miata. Although with this the A/C System will be brand new since I replaced the compressor awhile back :p

Any updates?

In reply to Slippery:Gonna Replace the Clutch soon because I HATE Dual mass flywheels and it has 118k miles on it so...why not? Looking for a helical LSD while i'm at it, Can't decide between the Wavetrac or Quaife. I'm NOT going to a clutch type. Already bought R56 aluminum rear trailing arms and Powerflex Black series RTAB's, slowly getting the suspension sorted.

Thanks for sharing. We had one in the same color combo back in the day. The old updates are back online, too.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Cool. I wish I had no sunroofs. :p

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New Diff and Clutch with lightweight flywheel. 29 pound duel mass flywheel with around an inch and a half of play to a New ACT Streetlite 13.8 Lightweight flywheel. Yey.

Also Can't wait to try out this Wavetrac.

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Also Got some Alta PSRS Front control arm bushings. And lower outer ball joint spacers. Also all new ball joints, inner and outer tierods, Powerflex black series Steering rack bushing and front sway bar bushings. Basically a complete Front subframe overhaul.

Also bought this sweet canton expansion tank to get rid of the craptastic plastic one with leaking screw on cap.

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Work started. Dropped Subframe and installed all new parts (I cleaned it later). Found my Passenger's side axle boot was torn. I didn't want to risk it being worse if I just did a boot replacement. So I just ended up getting two new performance axles.

My throwout bearing was shot and came apart in my hands, not to mention the one and a half inch slack in the factory heavy duel mass flywheel.

The diff was easy, just split the case and lift up the final drive. No need to remove the other gears, or to re-shim the box. I knocked out the old races and put in the new ones. The box only has one shim on one side which you reuse. I cleaned out the threads of the ring gear bolts (Which are rated at 12.9, never seen that before), snugged the ring gear to let it seat to the new diff, removed all bolts, applied red loctite and torqued a final time to the ring gear and diff. Simple and straight forward.

Still waiting on the axles. Can't wait to drive this. :p

Cool. You don't actually have to remove the MFE panel and radiator, but it does make it a bit easier. I made a bunch of MFE service bolts a bunch of years ago (and then sold all of them). Some day I'll get around to finishing the second batch I have (probably when I buy a R53). That Moss sells them for $100 is nuts.

In reply to Ian F:

It takes like 15 minutes or less to get into front end service mode. I might aswell do it.